When Cycling Gets Bloody

When Cycling Gets Bloody

Grivko lands a powerful right hook to the brow of Kittel early in the third round. Fitting commentary for a boxing match, but things get interesting when we learn that this was the third stage of the Dubai Tour, and Andriy Grivko and Marcel Kittel are professional cyclists. The punch left blood pouring down the face of Kittel:

The blow came early in the 200km stage from Dubai to Al Aqah. Kittel stated in a post stage interview “When we passed a construction site, the sand began blowing and as soon as we went into the crosswinds we were fighting for position, which is always stressful, and Andriy Grivko punched me,”

Kittel tweeted that he would not accept an apology for the incident:

I won't accept an apology for this. That has nothing to do with cycling. What Grivko did is a shame for our beautiful sport. pic.twitter.com/vvMN5LzQN0

Grivko has been disqualified from the race and his Astana team apologised to Kittel and his team, but Grivko also stated on his Facebook page that Kittel had pushed himself and team-mate Dmitriy Gruzdev and spat at him prior to the punch, saying that Kittel created “a very tense and dangerous situation that could cause not only my fall, but a big crash in the peloton.” Grivko added: “I responded with aggressive action to aggressive action from the other side.

Kittel, winner of the first two stages of the race retained the overall race lead by eight seconds despite the incident and finishing outside the top ten on day three.

It seems the Kittel is at least finding some humor in the situation with this tweet poking fun at the whole situation: